Distinct encoding and decoding of stable information and transient/stochastic information

ABSTRACT

A method and a signal processor for receiving a data stream comprising at least two distinct sets of encoded data, at least one set of which is relative to transient/stochastic components of a signal. Based at least in part on the distinct sets of encoded data, the signal processor decodes and reconstructs a corresponding rendition of signal for each set of the encoded data. The distinct sets of renditions of signal are then combined into a single rendition of reconstructed signal.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/744,808 entitled “DISTINCT ENCODING/DECODING OF STABLE/PREDICTABLEINFORMATION AND TRANSIENT/STOCHASTIC INFORMATION” (Attorney Docket No.VNO11-09), filed on Jan. 18, 2013, the entire teachings of which areincorporated herein by this reference.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/744,808 is related to and claims thebenefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 61/587,989 entitled“DISTINCT ENCODING/DECODING OF STABLE/PREDICTABLE INFORMATION ANDTRANSIENT/STOCHASTIC INFORMATION” (Attorney Docket No. VNO11-09p), filedon Jan. 18, 2012, the entire teachings of which are incorporated hereinby this reference.

This application is related to earlier filed U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/352,944 entitled “SIGNAL ANALYSIS AND GENERATION OFTRANSIENT INFORMATION,” (Attorney Docket No. VNO11-05), filed on Jan.18, 2012, the entire teachings of which are incorporated herein by thisreference.

This application is related to earlier filed U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 61/563,169 entitled “TIER-BASED SYSTEM TO SEPARATE AMULTIDIMENSIONAL SIGNAL INTO STABLE/PREDICTABLE INFORMATION ANDTRANSIENT INFORMATION,” (Attorney Docket No. VNO11-05p), filed on Nov.23, 2011, the entire teachings of which are incorporated herein by thisreference.

This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/188,188 entitled “INHERITANCE IN A TIERED SIGNAL QUALITY HIERARCHY,”filed on Jul. 21, 2011, the entire teachings of which are incorporatedherein by this reference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/188,201 entitled “TIERED SIGNAL DECODING AND SIGNAL RECONSTRUCTION,”,filed on Jul. 21, 2011, the entire teachings of which are incorporatedherein by this reference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/188,207 entitled “SIGNAL PROCESSING AND TIERED SIGNAL ENCODING,”filed on Jul. 21, 2011, the entire teachings of which are incorporatedherein by this reference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/188,220 entitled “UPSAMPLING IN A TIERED SIGNAL QUALITY HIERARCHY,”,filed on Jul. 21, 2011, the entire teachings of which are incorporatedherein by this reference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/188,226 entitled “SIGNAL PROCESSING AND INHERITANCE IN A TIEREDSIGNAL QUALITY HIERARCHY,”, filed on Jul. 21, 2011, the entire teachingsof which are incorporated herein by this reference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/188,237 entitled “TRANSMISSION OF RECONSTRUCTION DATA IN A TIEREDSIGNAL HIERARCHY,” filed on Jul. 21, 2011, the entire teachings of whichare incorporated herein by this reference.

BACKGROUND

It happens very often that a digitized signal features severalsubsequent samples of a same underlying information (which by way ofnon-limiting examples might be a 2D image, a 3D volumetric image, oreven a plane of elements featuring more than three dimensions), creatinga multi-dimensional signal (e.g., by way of non-limiting examples a 3Dsignal representing a sequence of subsequent 2D images, or a 4D signalrepresenting a sequence of 3D/volumetric images, etc.) where for one ofits dimensions, such as the time dimension there is some degree ofsignal stability over several subsequent samples. Non-limiting real-lifeexamples would be subsequent slices in a Computer Tomography scan,subsequent volumetric images in a MRI scan, subsequent frames in motionpictures, etc.

Due to the nature of real-life sensors and of transmission channels, itis very likely that different samples of similar or even same underlyinginformation will feature different characteristics. For instance, aspecific sample might feature slightly different values of a sameunderlying information than previous and/or subsequent samples due tomotion blur that is not present in other samples, or to slightlydifferent radiation intensities or light conditions at the time ofsampling, or to thermal noises in the sensor, or to transmission errorsin a channel, or to other types of noises, etc. The end result is ahigher statistical variability of the signal elements than it would bedesirable. This generates large amounts of information (e.g.,unnecessary intensity/color variations, plane elements of the wrongcolor, etc.) that are hard to distinguish from the “real” and necessarydetails in the signal, and that can complicate further signal processing(e.g., motion estimation, content identification, encoding/decoding,etc.). In addition, such variations discourage the use of quantizationwith relatively large quantization steps, as it would limit thepossibility to adequately represent the subtle variations of relativelystable information from one element to the next.

Several existing signal processing methods include separatingstable/relevant information (“core signal”) from transient/stochasticinformation (“transient layer signal”) before encoding/decoding asignal. Stable information is usually detailed and can typically be atleast in part predicted from neighboring samples. In contrast, transientinformation is typically unpredictable from the transient information ofneighboring samples.

Several existing conventional methods are aimed atfiltering/decreasing/toning down transient layer components of a signaland thus, among other things, improving the efficiency of datacompression since the amount of information entropy of transientinformation tends to be higher than that of stable information. Theproblem with those methods is that in some situations a decoded signalwith limited noise and/or limited transient components is perceived byusers as a signal with limited fidelity to the original, since realsignals do feature a certain amount of transient elements. In otherwords, a certain degree of transient/stochastic elements is desirable inthe reconstructed signal.

Another characteristic of conventional approaches is that transientlayer elements, when not being filtered out entirely, are encoded alongwith the core signal components, with the same signal encoding methods,and thus encoding details more than necessary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments herein relate to signal processing, and more particularly toencoding and decoding of multidimensional signals.

Embodiments herein deviate with respect to conventional systems andmethods, providing new and unique methods to encode and decode both thestable information of a signal (“core signal”) and itstransient/stochastic components (“transient layer signal”).

The innovative and unique approaches described herein allow separationof the signal into two different sets of information (such as a coresignal and transient layer signal), and then encoding and decoding thetwo sets of information independently. In this way, very differentencoding/decoding approaches can be applied to the core signal, whichrequires a reconstruction scheme with strict adherence to the originalsignal, and to the transient layer signal, which typically requires areconstruction scheme with just the same stochastic properties, but notnecessarily identical to the transient layer contained in the originalsignal.

In addition, in case of network congestion, embodiments described hereinallow reduction of bitrates required to transmit a rendition of thesignal by independently modulating the necessary bitrates for the coresignal and for the transient layer signal. For example, higher prioritycan be given for transmitting the core signal, and thus allowingsmoother quality degradation compared to approaches where encoding ofsignal does not involve distinguishing the core signal component fromthe transient layer signal.

One embodiment herein includes a method for adjusting a first decodedrendition of a signal by combining it with information reconstructedbased at least in part on received parameters corresponding tostatistical properties of the signal, thus increasing the perceivedquality of said decoded rendition.

More specifically, in a non-limiting example embodiment, a signalprocessor configured as a decoder receives two sets of reconstructiondata. The first set of reconstruction data is decoded according to afirst decoding method, reconstructing a first rendition of the signal(“core signal layer”). The second set of reconstruction data is decodedaccording to a second decoding method (different from the first decodingmethod), reconstructing a second rendition of the signal (“transientlayer”). The decoder then combines the two renditions, obtaining a finalrendition of the signal.

In some non-limiting embodiments, said second set of reconstruction datacomprises at least one parameter corresponding to statistical propertiesof the signal. In other non-limiting embodiments, said second renditionof the signal is reconstructed also based at least in part on thequantization parameters used to decode said first rendition of thesignal, effectively randomizing quantization errors via dithering.

In other non-limiting embodiments, the decoder reconstructs said secondrendition of the signal according to a method that simulates thegeneration of values according to random generation of numbers, whileleveraging information that is known at both encoder side and decoderside (i.e., allowing the encoder to precisely simulate the results ofthe reconstruction of the second rendition of the signal at the decoderside).

In a further non-limiting embodiment, the decoder simulates the randomgeneration of numbers based on one or more reference tables of numbers,selecting a starting position in the table according to parameters thatare available at both the encoding and the decoding side.

In other non-limiting embodiments, the decoder receives a parametercorresponding to the reference table that should be used for thegeneration of random numbers or seemingly random numbers, as well as oneor more parameters corresponding to alterations to perform on suchnumbers (e.g., variation of intensity according to a scaling parameter,thus simulating a random number generation with a given statisticaldistribution and a given standard deviation).

In other non-limiting embodiments, within the second set ofreconstruction data the decoder receives different parameterscorresponding to different portions of the signal, and correspondinglyreconstructs the second rendition of the signal according to differentreference tables and different operations based on the portion of thesignal. In a non-limiting embodiment, this is achieved by receiving anauxiliary map of parameters (indicating a parameter value for each givenportion of a signal), and then—for each portion—reconstructing thesecond rendition of the signal based at least in part on thecorresponding parameter.

These and other embodiment variations are discussed in more detailbelow.

As mentioned above, note that embodiments herein may be implemented insoftware or hardware, or a combination of both, and can include aconfiguration of one or more computing devices, encoder devices, decoderdevices, processor devices, routers, network, workstations, handheld orlaptop computers, set-top boxes, etc., to carry out and/or support anyor all of the methods and/or operations disclosed herein. In otherwords, one or more computerized devices or processors can be programmedand/or configured to operate as explained herein to implement differentembodiments.

In addition to the techniques as discussed above, yet other embodimentsherein include software programs to perform the steps and operationssummarized above and disclosed in detail below. One such embodimentcomprises a non-transitory computer readable media including computerprogram logic, instructions, etc., encoded thereon in such a way that,when performed in a computerized device having a processor andcorresponding memory and/or programs, causes the processor to performany of the operations disclosed herein. Such arrangements can beprovided as software, and/or in the forms of code, and/or other data(e.g., data structures) arranged or encoded on a computer readablemedium such as an optical medium (e.g., CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM), floppy orhard disk or any other medium capable of storing computer readableinstructions such as firmware or microcode in one or more ROM or RAM orPROM chips or as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). Thesoftware or firmware or any other such configurations can be installedin a computerized device and cause said computerized device to performthe techniques and/or operations as explained herein.

Accordingly, one particular embodiment of the present disclosure isdirected to a computer program product that includes a computer-readablehardware storage medium having instructions stored thereon forsupporting signal processing operations. The sequence of the steps hasbeen added for clarity sake. It is to be noted that these steps can beperformed in any suitable order.

Other embodiments of the present disclosure include software programs,firmware, and/or respective hardware to perform any of the methodembodiment steps and operations summarized above and disclosed in detailbelow.

Also, it is to be understood that the system, method, apparatus,instructions on computer readable storage media, etc., as discussedherein can be embodied strictly as a software program, as a hybrid ofsoftware, firmware, and/or hardware, or as hardware alone such as withina processor, or within an operating system or within a softwareapplication, etc.

As discussed above, techniques herein are well suited for use insoftware, firmware, and/or hardware applications that encode, decode andprocess signals. However, it should be noted that embodiments herein arenot limited to use in such applications and that the techniquesdiscussed herein are well suited for other applications as well.

Additionally, note that although each of the different features,techniques, configurations, etc., herein may be discussed in differentplaces of this disclosure, it is intended that each of the concepts canbe executed independently of each other or in combination with eachother. Accordingly, the one or more present inventions, embodiments,etc., as described herein can be embodied and viewed in many differentways.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of theinvention will be apparent from the following more particulardescription of preferred embodiments, as illustrated in the accompanyingfigures in which like reference characters refer to the same partsthroughout the different views.

FIG. 1A is an example diagram illustrating an encoder providingreconstruction data according to embodiments of the invention herein.

FIG. 1B is a flow chart of the encoding method performed by the encoderillustrated in FIG. 1A.

FIG. 2 is an example diagram illustrating generation and transmission ofa data stream to a decoder according to embodiments described herein.

FIG. 3A is an example diagram illustrating decoding of a data streamcontaining both encoded core signal data and encoded transient layersignal data according to embodiments described herein.

FIG. 3B is a flow chart of the decoding method performed by the decoderillustrated in FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the decoding and reconstruction of a transientlayer according to information known at both the encoding and thedecoding side.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an instance of computer architecturefor executing computer codes, instructions, applications, softwareand/or firmware, etc., according to embodiments described herein.

FIG. 6 is an example diagram illustrating different distributions ofnoise or transients in an image of a signal according to embodimentsherein.

FIG. 7 is an example diagram illustrating changes in the distribution ofnoise or transients in different regions of a display screen over timeaccording to embodiments herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Methods illustrated herein are suitable for any type ofmulti-dimensional signals, including without limitation sound signals,multichannel sound signals, pictures, two-dimensional images, videosignals, multi-view video signals, 3D video signals, volumetric signals,volumetric video signals, medical imaging signals, signals with morethan four dimensions, etc.

For simplicity, along the description the illustrated embodimentsusually adopt the use case of a video sequence made of a sequence of 2Dimages (commonly called “frames”, or “fields” in the case of interlacedvideo signals), with each element (in such non-limiting example casetypically referred to as “pixel”, or as “plane element” or “pel”) beingcharacterized by a set of color settings in a suitable color space(e.g., YUV, RGB, HSV, etc.). However, the same concepts are not limitedto time-based signals, but applicable to any other types ofmulti-dimensional signal in which at least one dimension T is suitablefor a stability hypothesis. In essence, the signal is assumed to have acertain degree of predictability along the dimension T. For thedimensions which are not appropriate for performing stabilityhypothesis, it is assumed that losing detailed information isundesirable, even if the information is very local and/or non-correlatedwith other portions of the signal along those dimensions (e.g., by meansof non-limiting example, a random dot on a white background that staysin the picture for only one frame is considered to be a statisticalfluctuation with limited importance, while a similar random dot thatstays in the picture for 20 consecutive frames is considered to berelevant information, and should not be considered as a statisticalfluctuation just because its neighboring pixels are all white). Peopleskilled in the art can easily understand how to apply the same methodsalso to other types of signals.

Methods and embodiments illustrated herein can be used in conjunctionwith one another and/or with other methods. Many of the preferredembodiments illustrated herein describe techniques and algorithms withthe goal of achieving compression, i.e., encoding a suitable renditionof the signal with a minimum quantity of bits. This also is anon-limiting example: other non-limiting embodiments achieve differentpurposes, such as robust and efficient filtering, signal qualityenhancement, image denoising, etc.

FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate the encoding of a multidimensional signal to betransmitted. This signal supports, for at least one of the dimensions, astability hypothesis, so that—along such dimension and for a givennumber of contiguous elements—stable information containing the morerelevant information components of the signal (“core signal”) can beseparated from transient information containing noise and other highlyvolatile information (“transient layer signal”).

In an encoder 110 such as a encoder device, a signal processor device isconfigured to receive the signal 100 during a step 110B and process itwith a denoiser 120 in a step 120B. As its name suggests, the denoiserremoves the noise or transients from signal 100 and outputs a coresignal 130-1. The denoiser 120 can be implemented with in accordancewith any suitbale denoising method.

Note that embodiments herein can include analyzing the signal 100 forone or more specific types of noise, transients, etc., in the signal100. An analyzer resource such as denoiser 120 or other suitableresource can be configured to produce the core signal 130-1 to includeoriginal information as in signal less the specific one or more specificclasses of transients, noise, etc., that are removed from the signal 100to produce core signal 130-1. The processing resource such as subtractoror other suitable resource produces the transient signal layer 130-2 toinclude the one or more classes of transients, noise, etc. Accordingly,embodiments herein can include targeting a specific type of transients,noise, etc., in the original signal 100 and including such informationin the transient signal 130-2. The substitute transient signal componentas discussed herein can be generated based on the original transientsignal 130-2.

In a step 125B, the core signal 130-1 is subtracted from the signal 100by a subtractor 125, resulting in an output of the transient layersignal 130-2 (e.g., including noise, transients, etc.). As describedabove, the core signal 130-1 and transient layer signal 130-2 featuredifferent characteristics and properties. In the example described, inone embodiment, the transient layer signal 130-2 behaves like whitenoise, i.e., each element of transient layer signal 130-2 at a giveninstance at T=t features stochastic characteristics with an expectedvalue of zero, and not correlated with any corresponding values atprecedent or subsequent samples of the signal across the dimension T.

In a step 140B, the core signal 130-1 is encoded by means of a coresignal encoder 140, while in a step 150B, the transient layer signal130-2 is encoded by means of a transient layer signal encoder 150. Theencoders 140 and 150 generate encoded core signal data 160 and encodedtransient layer signal data 170, collectively referred as “encodedreconstruction data”.

In the example described, distinct encoding methods can be used forencoding the core signal 130-1, which is to be reconstructed with highfidelity since it contains essential information, and the transientlayer signal 130-2, which is generally not required to be reconstructedwith high fidelity, but only with statistical resemblance with theoriginal.

In steps 160B and 170B, the sets of encoded reconstruction data arestored in repositories 160 and 170.

In the non-limiting embodiment described, encoders 140 and 150 produceencoded reconstruction data (e.g., reconstruction data 160-1, . . . ,reconstruction data 160-N for core signal 130-1; and reconstruction data170-1, . . . , reconstruction data 170-N for transient signal 130-2)allowing reconstruction of the different signals at different levels ofquality in terms of both signal resolution and adherence to the originalsignal.

In a particular non-limiting example embodiment, as the core signal andtransient layer signal are encoded separately, those signals can beencoded with different hierarchies of levels of quality. As illustratedin FIG. 1, the core signal is encoded with N levels of quality, whilethe transient layer signal is encoded with M levels of quality.

In another non-limiting embodiment, the transient layer signal encoder150 encodes the transient layer signal 130-2 with both conventionalsignal encoding techniques (i.e., encoding the signal “”, for anaccurate reconstruction of the transient layer), and encoding techniquesthat involve extracting and encoding the key statistical characteristics(e.g., spectral distributions, etc.) of the transient layer, so that itis possible to transmit to the decoder a limited amount of encoded datathat still allows for reconstruction of a transient layer with similar,while not necessarily identical, characteristics as those of theoriginal transient layer. In other words, the transient information in areceived signal 100 can be identified and characterized. In thenon-limiting example wherein transient information corresponds to noiseinformation or other particular type of one or more transients that areto be removed, when reproducing a rendition of the signal 100, it is notnecessary to use the exact, original noise (e.g., transient signal130-2, which would require much bandwidth to capture) in the reproducedsignal because the noise is extraneous to the extent that it provideseffect and is not critical.

Note that the signal information stored in transient layer signal data170 represents the original transients or noise in signal 100 encoded atdifferent levels of quality and/or represents a substitute for theoriginal noise encoded at different levels of quality.

In one embodiment, the encoder 110 analyzes the original transientsignal component in received signal 100 to determine an amount oftransient present in the received signal 100. The encoder 110 generatesa substitute noise or transient signal component for use in lieu of theoriginal transient signal component. The substitute transient signalcomponent can have a substantially similar amount of transients or noiseas the amount of transients or noise present in the received signal 100.

According to embodiments herein, depending on parameters such as theavailability of bandwidth, or the target fidelity of the transmittedrendition, a signal processor configured as a streaming server canchoose whether to transmit the transient layer with precise fidelity (atthe cost of a higher amount of transmitted information) or just withstatistical fidelity (i.e., reducing the adherence of the reconstructionwith the original signal, but also reducing the amount of information tobe transmitted). Thus, if bandwidth is available, embodiments herein caninclude transmitting the original signal including the originaltransients for playback. Transmitting a signal including the originaltransient can require substantial bandwidth, even though the exacttransients are not critical to the playback. When less bandwidth isavailable to transmit data to a target recipient, the substitutetransient information (i.e., having statistical characteristics of theoriginal noise) can be transmitted to the target recipient in lieu oftransmitting the original transient information that requiressubstantial extra bandwidth.

In one non-limiting example embodiment, statistical characteristics oftransient information identified in a signal can be identified andencoded as substitute transient information according to a tier-basedhierarchical encoded method, such as the ones described in U.S. patentapplications Ser. No. 13/188,188 entitled “INHERITANCE IN A TIEREDSIGNAL QUALITY HIERARCHY,” 13/188,201 entitled “TIERED SIGNAL DECODINGAND SIGNAL RECONSTRUCTION,” (Attorney Docket No. VNO11-01), 13/188,207entitled “SIGNAL PROCESSING AND TIERED SIGNAL ENCODING,” (AttorneyDocket No. VNO11-02), and 13/188,226 entitled “SIGNAL PROCESSING ANDINHERITANCE IN A TIERED SIGNAL QUALITY HIERARCHY,” (Attorney Docket No.VNO11-04) from the same inventors. In one of such non-limitingembodiments, the plane of parameters corresponding to statisticalcharacteristics of transient information (identifying a set ofparameters per each element of the signal) is encoded with atiered-based hierarchical method, allowing to efficiently characterizedifferent portions of the signal with different parameters (i.e.,different statistical characteristic of transient information).

In accordance with another embodiment, the encoder 110 can receivesignal 100. The encoder 110 can be configured to parse the signal 100into multiple components including a transient (e.g., withoutlimitation, noise) signal component (such as signal 130-2) and a core(e.g., without limitation, non-noise) signal component (such as coresignal 130-1). By way of a non-limiting example, the encoder encodes thetransient signal component independently of encoding the core signalcomponent and stores the encoded core signal component and the encodedtransient signal component in one or more repositories.

The encoder can encode the original core signal component of the signalat multiple levels of playback quality, while also encoding the originaltransient signal component at multiple levels of playback quality.

As discussed later in FIG. 2, in response to receiving a request forcontent as represented by signal 100, a respective server resourceadaptively transmits the encoded original core signal component and theencoded original transient signal component at varying levels of qualityover a respective communication link to a remote decoder.

One embodiment herein can include detecting a reduction in availablebandwidth on the communication link. There may be insufficient bandwidthto transmit the core signal and the transient signal at the highestlevel of quality. In response to such a condition, the server resourcecan be configured to maintain a transmission of the encoded core signalcomponent at a particular level of quality and reduce a level of qualityat which the original or substitute transient signal component istransmitted to the decoder device over the communication link toaccommodate the reduction in available bandwidth.

In other words, embodiments herein can include transmitting appropriateencoded signal data (associated with signal 100) to reproduce a bestplayback experience at a target device. Embodiments herein can furtherinclude reducing a level of quality of original or substitute transientinformation to the target device in response to detecting congestion.Thus, bandwidth saved from reducing a quality of the transientinformation (which may have little impact on a played back version ofcontent) can be used to send encoded data such as a larger portion orhigh quality of compressed core portion of the signal 100.

Referring again to FIG. 1, in accordance with yet further embodiments,the encoder can be configured to receive signal 100 and parse the signal100 into multiple components including an original transient signalcomponent (such as signal 130-2) and an original core signal component(such as signal 130-1). The encoder 110 converts the original transientsignal component into a substitute transient signal component. Thesubstitute transient signal component is representative of but notidentical to transient information in the received signal. The encoder110 provides such as stores the substitute transient signal component asa replacement for the original noise signal component. In oneembodiment, the encoder 110 produces the substitute transient signalcomponent at different levels of quality.

In one embodiment, the encoder 110 generates the substitute transientsignal component to have a substantially similar distribution ofinformation as a distribution of information in the original transientsignal component. In yet further embodiments, the encoder 110 producesthe produces the substitute transient signal component associated withsignal 100 to be substantially fewer bits of data than the originaltransient signal component.

The encoder 110 can be configured to generate the substitute transientsignal component to be perceptibly equivalent to the original transientsignal component. That is, playback of the core signal component and thesubstitute transient component can be perceptibly the same orsubstantially similar to a respective viewing experience when playingback the core signal component and the original transient signalcomponent. However, as mentioned, the substitute transient component maybe captured in substantially fewer bits than are needed to capture theoriginal transient signal component in the original signal 100.

Further embodiments herein include: encoding the substitute transientsignal component; storing the encoded substitute transient signalcomponent in a repository; compressing the original core signalcomponent; storing the compressed original core signal component of thereceived signal in the repository; and distributing the encodedsubstitute transient signal component and the compressed original coresignal for playback. In accordance with further embodiments, note thatthe signal 100 can include different types of transient information. Itmay be desirable to remove one or more of these types of transients fromthe original signal 100. Embodiments herein can include parsing thesignal 100 into a core signal 130-1 as well as multiple types of targettransient signals. Each of the multiple transient signals can be used torepresent different types of transients in the original signal 100. In asimilar manner as previously discussed, a substitute transient signalcan be generated for each of the different types of transients detectedin the original signal 100. Additionally, each type of transient can beencoded at different levels of quality. FIG. 2 illustrates thetransmission of a signal encoded according to the invention.Repositories 160 and 170 are accessed and data is extracted andprocessed by a streaming server 250 comprising for example, a signalprocessor. The streaming server 250 assembles and transmits a datastream 260 to a remote decoder 280 (such as a decoder device locatedover a network at a remote location), which then reconstructs arendition of a reconstructed signal 290 and sends it to a playbackdevice 295 for playback.

By way of a non-limiting example, in one embodiment, the streamingserver 250 assembles the data stream 260 by combining the encoded coresignal data and encoded transient layer signal data into a one singledata stream.

In the non-limiting example embodiment described herein, the streamingserver 250 also receives information 255 representative of data trafficconditions of a transmission channel to the decoder 280. Based on thetraffic conditions such as congestion of a communication link supportingconveyance of the digital data stream transmitted to the decoder at aremote location, the streaming server 250 is configured to select thedifferent data to assemble the data stream 260.

More precisely, in this embodiment, the streaming server 250 can beconfigured to assign different priorities to the encoded core signaldata in the repository 160 and to the encoded transient layer signaldata in the repository 170. This allows the streaming server 250 tocombine, for example, a relatively higher level of quality of the coresignal with a relatively lower level of quality of the transient layersignal. In certain instances, it is desired to transmit encoded datarepresenting the core signal at a high level of quality as it istypically the most important part of the original signal 100. Asmentioned, in response to detecting congestion, the transient layersignal or substitute for same can be transmitted at a lower level ofquality.

In case of reconstruction data encoded according to a tier-based or to amulti-scale method, encoded core signal data 160-1 through 160-N aretransmitted along with only encoded transient layer data 170-1, or incase of reconstruction data encoded according to a conventional encodingmethod, encoded core signal data 160-N can be transmitted along with theencoded transient layer data instead. In principle, modulating thelevels of quality of the core signal differently from the levels ofquality of the transient layer allows for a less perceptible degradationof the overall quality of the reconstructed signal 290 when thestreaming server 250 is forced to reduce the size/bitstream of the datastream 260. The degradation of the signal can be more progressive andprovide a smoother viewing experience to the user.

In accordance with further embodiments, sending the detected transientlayer signal 130-2 at the lower level of quality in favor oftransmitting a high level of quality for the core signal 130-1 providesa better viewing experience during congestion.

FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate the decoding of data stream 260 containingboth the encoded core signal data and encoded transient layer signaldata.

By way of a non-limiting example, the data stream 260 can be received asa single stream of data including the core signal information and thetransient layer information. The data stream 260 is received in a step300B by the decoder 280, said decoder producing the reconstructed signal290 as previously discussed.

In the example described, in a step 310B, the data stream 260 is splitby a splitter 310 into two different sets of data: namely, an encodedcore signal 310-1 and an encoded transient layer signal 310-2.

Each set of data (i.e., core signal 310-1 and transient layer signal310-2) is then decoded independently in accordance with specificrequirements of their respective encoding methods. In the specificembodiment illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B, in a step 330B the encodedcore signal 310-1 is decoded by a core signal decoder 330, producing arendition of stable components of the signal 350-1 (such as coreinformation without noise). In step 340B, the encoded transient layersignal 310-2 is decoded by a transient layer signal decoder 340,producing a rendition of information of noise and other transientcomponents of signal 350-2.

The rendition of information 350-2 is sent to a transient layerreconstructor 360, which produces in a step 360B a rendition of thetransient layer signal 350-3. Renditions 350-1 and 350-3 are combined bya combiner 370 during a step 370B to generate the reconstructed signal290.

In one embodiment, the renditions 350-1 and 350-3 have differentresolutions and the combination comprises resampling the renditions toobtain renditions of the same resolution and summing them element byelement. Typically, the renditions of lower resolution are upsampled sothat all renditions have the same resolution.

In another embodiment, the rendition of information of noise and othertransient components of signal 350-2 can contain parameters indicatingspectral distribution properties of the original transient layer signal130-2. In this case, the encoded data does not contain information foraccurate reconstruction of the transient layer signal 130-2, butinformation for reconstruction of a proxy of the transient layer signal130-2. Accordingly, the transient layer reconstructor 360 generates arendition of the transient layer signal 350-3 with spectral distributionproperties that are substantially similar to the properties of theoriginal transient layer signal 130-2.

FIG. 4 illustrates a non-limiting embodiment of reconstruction of atransient layer according to information known at both the encoding andthe decoding side.

In step 4.01, the decoder receives one or more parameters correspondingto a reference table that should be leveraged in order to generate thevalues of the elements of the transient layer. Broadly speaking, saidreference table corresponds to the statistical properties of thetransient layer (e.g., by ways of non-limiting example, featuring valuesdistributed according to a Laplacian distribution), and allows togenerate seemingly random numbers according to a said statisticalproperties. In this non-limiting embodiment, the same reference table isavailable at both encoding and decoding, allowing the encoder togenerate precisely the same seemingly random numbers that will begenerated by the decoder, thus precisely simulating the decoding processof the transient layer.

In step 4.02, the decoder receives a parameter indicating the startingposition in said table, i.e., the position in the sequence of numberscontained in the table from which to start in order to generateseemingly random numbers according to the statistical propertiescorresponding to said table. In this non-limiting embodiment, thedecoder calculates the starting position based on information that isknown at both encoding and decoding (e.g., specific properties of theimage), without the need for the encoder to send to the decoder astarting position.

In step 4.03, the decoder receives at least one parameter correspondingto alterations to perform to the numbers generated by means of thereference table. In this non-limiting embodiment, said parametersinclude a scaling parameter for the Y component (luminance) and ascaling parameter for the U and V components.

In step 4.04, the decoder generates the elements of the transient layer,by selecting values in the sequence of values of said reference table(starting from said starting location) and by altering them according tosaid parameters.

In other non-limiting embodiments, the decoder receives differentparameters for different portions of the signal, thus generating valuesfor each given element of the transient layer by selecting differentreference tables and/or altering numbers of the reference tables indifferent ways according to the location of said given element in thetransient layer. In some of such non-limiting embodiment, the decoderreceives an auxiliary map of parameters at a lower level of quality,upscales it to the level of quality of the transient layer that must bereconstructed (thus generating parameters for each element of thetransient layer that must be reconstructed), and then generates thevalues of each given element of the transient layer according to thecorresponding parameters of said given element.

In another non-limiting embodiment, in order to generate a transientlayer corresponding to a given core signal, the decoder selects thereference table and generates suitable parameters to alter values of thereference table based at least in part on one or more quantizationparameters used to decode the core signal corresponding to saidtransient layer.

In another non-limiting embodiment, the decoder generates a plurality oftransient layers corresponding to a same core signal and then combinesthem in order to reconstruct a single transient layer corresponding tosaid core signal.

FIG. 5 is an example block diagram of a computer system 800 thatimplements signal processing such as decoding and/or decoding accordingto embodiments described herein.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the followingdiscussion, it is appreciated that throughout this specificationdiscussions utilizing terms such as “processing”, “computing”,“calculating”, “determining” or the like refer to actions or processesof a computing platform, such as a computer or a similar electroniccomputing device, that manipulates or transforms data represented asphysical electronic or magnetic quantities within memories, registers,or other information storage devices, transmission devices, or displaydevices of the computing platform.

In accordance with different embodiments described herein, the computersystem 800 may be any of various types of devices, including, but notlimited to, a personal computer system, desktop computer, laptop,notebook, netbook computer, mainframe computer system, handheldcomputer, tablet, smartphone, workstation, network computer, applicationserver, storage device, a consumer electronics device such as a camera,camcorder, set top box, mobile device, video game console, handheldvideo game device, a peripheral device such as a switch, modem, router,or, in general, any type of computing or electronic device.

As shown in the figure, the computer system 800 of the present exampleincludes an interconnect 811 that couples with a computer readablestorage medium 812, in which digital information can be stored andretrieved. Computer system 800 can further include a processor 813(e.g., one or more processor devices), I/O interface 814, and acommunications interface 817.

The I/O interface 814 provides connectivity to a repository 180, and ifpresent, display screen and peripheral devices 816 such as a keyboard,and/or a computer mouse, etc.

Communications interface 817 enables the computer system 800 tocommunicate over network 190 to retrieve information from remote sourcesand communicate with other computers, switches, clients, servers, etc.The I/O interface 814 also enables the signal processor 813 to retrieveor attempt to retrieve stored information from the repository 180.

Note that the computer system 800 or encoder 110 or streaming server 250or decoder 280 also can be embodied to include a computer readablestorage medium 812 for storing data and/or logic instructions.

Said computer readable storage media 812 can be any suitable deviceand/or hardware such as memory, optical storage, hard drive, floppydisk, etc. The computer readable storage media can also be anon-transitory storage media to store instructions associated with anyof signal processors 110, 250 and/or 280. The instructions are executedby a respective resource such as the signal processor 813 to perform anyof the operations as discussed herein. As shown, the computer readablestorage media 812 can be encoded with a signal processor application840-1 executed by a signal processor 813 while processing 840-2.

The computer system 800 can include the signal processor 813 to executesuch instructions and carry out operations as discussed herein.Accordingly, when executed, the code associated with a signal processorapplication 840-1 can support processing functionality as discussedherein. As mentioned, the signal processor 813 can be configured tosupport encoding and/or decoding. In a non-limiting embodiment, thesignal processor 813 accesses computer readable storage media 812 viathe use of interconnect 811 in order to launch, run, execute, interpretor otherwise perform the instructions of the signal processorapplication 840-1 stored in computer readable storage media 812.Execution of the signal processor application 840-1 produces processingfunctionality in the signal processor 813. In other words, the process840-2 associated with processor 813 represents one or more aspects ofexecuting the signal processor application 840-1 within or upon thesignal processor 813 in the computer system 800.

Note that the above discussion provides a basic embodiment indicatinghow to carry out functionality associated with signal processor 813.However, it should be noted that the actual configuration for carryingout the operations as described herein can vary depending on theapplications.

Those skilled in the art will understand that the computer system 800can include other processes and/or software and hardware components,such as an operating system that controls allocation and use of hardwareprocessing resources to execute signal processor application 840-1.

FIG. 6 is an example diagram illustrating different distributions oftransient information (e.g., without limitation, such as or includingnoise) in an image of a signal according to embodiments herein.

As previously discussed, a suitable processing resource such as encoder110 processes and parses signal 100 into an original transient signalcomponent 610-1 (e.g., information that can suitably be transmittedstatistically, such as without limitation noise) and an original coresignal component 620 (e.g., relevant information that should betransmitted with fidelity to the original).

The signal 100 can be a time-based display signal playable over time ona display screen 630. For example, the signal 100 can specify settingsof each element (“pixel”) on display screen 630 over time.

The processing resource converts the original noise signal component610-1 into the substitute transient signal component 620-2. This caninclude: for a portion of the original transient signal corresponding toa frame of display information to be displayed on the display screen630, analyzing the portion of the original transient signal component610-1 to identify different levels of transient information present inmultiple regions of the display screen. For example, the processingresource detects that region 650-1 has a corresponding noisedistribution #1; the processing resource detects that region 650-2 has acorresponding noise distribution #3; the processing resource detectsthat region 650-3 has a corresponding noise distribution #2; and so on.Each region can have a different level of noise.

Based on the amount of detected noise in the regions 650, the processingresource produces the substitute transient signal component 620-2 toreflect or specify substitute distributions of noise to be used in themultiple different regions.

FIG. 7 is an example diagram illustrating changes in the distribution oftransient information in different regions of a display screen over timeaccording to embodiments herein.

As previously mentioned, the signal 100 can be a time-based signal (suchas a sequence of playable images and/or audio). The amount of transientinformation (without limitation, noise) in the different regions canvary over time. In one embodiment, the processing resource analyzes thedifferent regions and determines an amount of transient informationpresent in the signal 100.

For example, processing resource such as encoder 110 analyzes settingsin the original transient signal component 620-1 in the field of pixels730 for image 1 and determines level of transient information A presentin region 711-1; level of transient information B present in region711-2; level of transient information F present in region 711-3. Theprocessing resource produces the substitute transient signal component620-2 for image 1 to reflect these detected amounts of transientinformation.

Processing resource such as encoder 110 analyzes settings in theoriginal transient signal component 620-1 in the plane of pixels forimage 2 and determines level of transient information B present inregion 712-1 and level of transient information C present in region712-2. The processing resource produces the substitute transient signalcomponent 620-2 for image 2 to reflect these detected amounts oftransient information.

Processing resource such as encoder 110 analyzes settings in theoriginal transient signal component 620-1 in the plane of pixels forimage 3 and determines level of transient information C present inregion 713-1; level of transient information D present in region 713-2;level of transient information A present in region 711-3; level oftransient information D present in region 713-4; and level of transientinformation B present in region 713-5. The processing resource producesthe substitute transient signal component 620-2 for image 3 to reflectthese detected amounts of transient information.

As previously discussed, processing can include identifying one or moredifferent target types of transients present in the original signal 100,analyzing the transients, and the producing a substantially similarsubstitute for the transients.

While this invention has been particularly shown and described withreferences to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may bemade therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentapplication as defined by the appended claims. Such variations areintended to be covered by the scope of this present application. Assuch, the foregoing description of embodiments of the presentapplication is not intended to be limiting. Rather, any limitations tothe invention are presented in the following claims.

We claim:
 1. A method comprising: via computer processor hardware,performing operations of: retrieving a transient image signal componentand a core image signal component from storage; producing a data streamto include the transient image signal component and the core imagesignal component; transmitting the data stream to a target recipient;and during transmission of the data stream to the target recipient,modulating a level of quality of the core image signal componentincluded in the data stream differently than modulating a level ofquality of the transient image signal component included in the datastream.
 2. The method as in claim 1 further comprising: retrieving thetransient image signal component from a transient image signal in thestorage, the transient image signal encoded in accordance with a firstset of multiple different bit rates; and retrieving the core imagesignal component from a core image signal stored in the storage, thecore image signal encoded in accordance with a second set of multipledifferent bit rates.
 3. The method as in claim 2, wherein the core imagesignal is encoded independently of the transient image signal and storedin the storage prior to transmission of the data stream.
 4. The methodas in claim 1 further comprising: modulating the levels of quality ofthe core image signal component and the transient image signal componentincluded in the data stream in response to reduced availability ofbandwidth to transmit the data stream.
 5. The method as in claim 4,wherein modulating the levels of quality includes: including a lowerlevel of quality of the transient image signal component in the datastream in order to transmit a higher level of quality of the core imagesignal component in the data stream.
 6. The method as in claim 1,wherein the transient image signal component is encoded withsubstantially fewer bits than an original image signal component fromwhich the transient image signal component is derived.
 7. The method asin claim 1, wherein the transient image signal component encodesdifferent noise distribution levels in each of multiple differentregions of a display field.
 8. The method as in claim 2, wherein thetransient image signal component and the core image signal component arederived from an original image signal, the first set of multipledifferent bit rates and second set of multiple different bit ratesstored in a repository for selective retrieval and inclusion in the datastream.
 9. The method as in claim 1 further comprising: providing higherpriority to transmitting the core image signal component than thetransient image signal component.
 10. The method as in claim 1 furthercomprising: modulating the level of quality of the core signaldifferently than the level of quality of the transient layer transmittedin the data stream to provide less perceptible degradation of overallquality of an image signal reconstructed from the data stream.
 11. Acomputer system comprising: computer processor hardware; and a hardwarestorage resource coupled to the computer processor hardware, thehardware storage resource storing instructions that, when executed bythe computer processor hardware, cause the computer processor hardwareto: retrieve a transient image signal component and a core image signalcomponent from storage; produce a data stream to include the transientimage signal component and the core image signal component; transmit thedata stream to a target recipient; and during transmission of the datastream to the target recipient, modulate a level of quality of the coreimage signal component included in the data stream differently thanmodulating a level of quality of the transient image signal componentincluded in the data stream.
 12. The computer system as in claim 11,wherein the computer processor hardware is further operable to: retrievethe transient image signal component from a transient image signal inthe storage, the transient image signal encoded in accordance with afirst set of multiple different bit rates; and retrieve the core imagesignal component from a core image signal stored in the storage, thecore image signal encoded in accordance with a second set of multipledifferent bit rates.
 13. The computer system as in claim 12, wherein thecore image signal is encoded independently of the transient image signaland stored in the storage prior to transmission of the data stream. 14.The computer system as in claim 11, wherein the computer processorhardware is further operable to: modulate the levels of quality of thecore image signal component and the transient image signal componentincluded in the data stream in response to reduced availability ofbandwidth to transmit the data stream.
 15. The computer system as inclaim 14, wherein the computer processor hardware is further operableto: include a lower level of quality of the transient image signalcomponent in the data stream in order to transmit a higher level ofquality of the core image signal component in the data stream.
 16. Thecomputer system as in claim 11, wherein the transient image signalcomponent is encoded with substantially fewer bits than an originalimage signal component from which the transient image signal componentis derived.
 17. The computer system as in claim 11, wherein thetransient image signal component encodes different noise distributionlevels in each of multiple different regions of a display field.
 18. Thecomputer system as in claim 11, wherein the transient image signalcomponent and the core image signal component are derived from anoriginal image signal, the first set of multiple different bit rates andsecond set of multiple different bit rates stored in a repository forselective retrieval and inclusion in the data stream.
 19. The computersystem as in claim 11, wherein the computer processor hardware isfurther operable to: provide higher priority to transmitting the coreimage signal component than the transient image signal component. 20.The computer system as in claim 11, wherein the computer processorhardware is further operable to: modulate the level of quality of thecore signal differently than the level of quality of the transient layertransmitted in the data stream to provide less perceptible degradationof overall quality of an image signal reconstructed from the datastream.
 21. Computer-readable hardware storage having instructionsstored thereon, the instructions, when carried out by computer processorhardware, cause the computer processor hardware to: retrieve a transientimage signal component and a core image signal component from storage;produce a data stream to include the transient image signal componentand the core image signal component; transmit the data stream to atarget recipient; and during transmission of the data stream to thetarget recipient, modulate a level of quality of the core image signalcomponent included in the data stream differently than modulating alevel of quality of the transient image signal component included in thedata stream.